Tire building tool



N. ,L. WARNER March 22, 1932. TIRE BUILDING TOOL Re. 18,394

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Sept. 4. 1928 J a. W J 15275 N1 :L.WARNER I March-22, 1932. Re. 18,394

- FIRE. BUILDING TOOL 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Sept. 4, 1928 mm?Una/5 L-L7PnEE 5 6h Reissued Mar. 22, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICENOAH L. WARNER, OF AKRON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE B. I. GOODRICH COMPANY,OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK TIRE BUILDING TOOLOriginal No. 1,834,560, dated December 1, 1931, Serial No. 303,660,filed September 4, 1928. Application for reissue filed January 11, 1932.Serial No. 585,983.

This invention relates to tire-building apparatus and more especially toapparatus for folding the bead margins of a band of tire fabric aboutthe bead core of a tire structure fl and stitching it down.

The invention has its principal field of utility in connection with themanufacture of tires by the pulley band or drum method in which it isespecially efficacious in turning up of the fabric margins over the beadcore and stitching the turned up margins in place rapidly and in auniform manner.

The principal objects of my invention are to provide improved means forsupporting a.

1 plurality of tire tools and for bringing them quickly and accuratelyinto operative engagement with the work in the proper sequence foroperations such as that mentioned; to provide improved tirefabric-turning means;

30 to provide improved fabric-stitching means; to provide uniformity ofoperation and avoid ance of injury to the stock notwithstanding surfaceroughness or irregularities in the fabric; and to provide a toolmounting adapted to move a tire tool quickly and accurately into or outof operative position adjacent the work and yet for securely andaccurately holding it in such position.

Of the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a tire-building drum and work thereon,parts being sectioned or broken away, showing a pair of my improved tiretools in position for the beginning of the operation.

Fig. 2 is an elevation on a largerscale, from the left, to the left-handtire tool of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 33 of Fig. 1, but with thetire tool in opera tion.

able shaft 13 journaled at its respective ends in'brackets 14, 14, andhaving its axis of rotation perpendicular to that of the drum-supportingspindle 11. A tool-carrying arm 15 has one end thereof retained in asocket member 16 secured on the shaft 13 for movement therewith in avertical plane.

A counterweight 17 is adjustably mounted upon a lever member 18 forlongitudinal movement along the latter, one end of the lever 18 beingretained in a socket member 19 secured upon shaft 13. The counterweight17 is provided with a set screw or the like 17 for securing the weightat a desired position upon the lever 18 to adjust the leverage appliedto the shaft 13 by the counterweight for ofisettin'g or neutralizing theturning force applied to the shaft by the arm 15 and tools carriedthereupon. The arrangement of the arm 15 and the counterweight 17 uponthe shaft 13 is such that after the arm has been selectively positionedeither in horizontal position transversely of the tire drum 12, or inraised position above the tire machine 10, the arm will be held in suchposition. The latter position of the arm is shown in dotted lines inFig. 1.

llhe socket member 16 has a. projecting shoulder 20 adapted to restupon'the top surface of the machine 10 when the arm 15 is in raisedposition and thus to serve as a stop member to prevent further movementof the arm under the influence of the counterweight.

The socket member 16 also is formed with an ear portion 21 upon which alatch member 22 is pivoted, the latter being adapted to catch a pin 23extending from a projecting arm 24 formed on one of the brackets 14 forlocking the arm 13 in horizontalposition transversely across the tiredrum when the tools carried thereby are in use and to prevent upwardmovement of the arm 15 due to the pressure of the work against thetools.

Spaced-apart brackets 25, 25 are adj ustably mounted upon the arm 15 andare provided with respective stems 26, 26 which extend radially withrelation to the arm 15, and which are positioned so as to be disposed atopposite sides of the tire drum 12 and to extend below the top facethereof at points equidistant from the medial plane of the tire drumwhen the arm 15 is in its operative horizontal position. In the latterposition the stems 26 are substantially radial with relation to the tiredrum 12. A supporting collar 27 having a cam surface 28 formed on itsupper face is secured to each stem 26 adjacent the lower end thereof.

Swivelled on each of the stems 26 is a tool supporting plate 30 formedwith a hub portion 31, said plate being arranged for both angular andaxial movement on said stem. A cam roller 32 is journalled in a bracketon the under surface of the plate 30, and is yieldingly urged againstthe cam surface 28 of the collar 27 by a compression spring 33 mountedupon the stem 26 between the bracket 25 and hub portion 31 of the plate30. The arrangement is such that angular movement of the tool-supportingplate 30 through approximately 90 raises the plate from its loweroperative position on the cam surface 28 to its upper operative positionon the said cam surface.

The hub portion 31 of the supporting plate 30 is provided near its upperend with a handle 34 extending laterally therefrom, for use in manuallyturning the plate 30 upon the stem 26. I V

V A slotted tool member 35 is pivoted at its slotted end to thesupporting plate 30, near the outer margin thereof, by means of a pivotpin or bolt 36, the clearance between the base of the slot and theperiphery of the plate permitting relative movement of the plate andtool member in a horizontal plane. A screw 37 is threaded into theperiphery of the plate 30 where the latter is embraced by the slottedportion of member 35, the head of the screw engaging the margins of saidslotted portion to limit pivotal movement of the member 35 away from thecenter of the supporting plate 30. A compression spring 38 having itsend portions mounted upon lugs 39, 40 extending respectively from therear face of the member 35, and from an arm portion 41 extendingradially from the plate 30, normally urges the tool member against thestop screw 37 and offers yielding resistance to forces urging the toolmember in the opposite direction.

The member 35 has one side of its free end laterally tapered to a pointto provide a workengaging plow face 42 adapted to be inserted betweenthe fabric at the marginal portion of a tire structure and theunderlying tire drum to turn said marginal portion upward against atire-bead structure mounted adjacent the margin of the tire. The topface of the member 35is flat and has a roller disc 43 mounted thereonfor free rotation in a horizontal plane, said roller being adapted toengage the turned up marginal portion of the tire structure and press itinto adhesive engagement with the tire bead structure.

For engaging the margin of the fabric after it has been turned upagainst the bead structure and pressed into position thereon and forlaying the fabric firmly and smoothly against the outer, face of thetire, I provide a stitching disc or member 45 mounted on the arm 41 ofthe tool-supporting plate 30 for free rotation thereon in a horizontalplane.

In the operation of my improved apparatus, a partly-built tire structureincluding tire beads in position at the margins thereof being inposition on the tire drum 12, the carrying arm 15 is manually loweredinto horizontal position above and transversely of the tire drum, thelatch member 22 engaging the pin 23, whereby the arm 15 is secured inthe horizontal position, with the tool-supporting brackets positionedadjacent the respective side margins of the tire structure.

The tool-supporting plates preferably are concurrently rotated inopposite directions around their respective stem 26, 26 manually bymeans of the handles 34 until the point or leading edge of each of theplow faces 42 is moved to a position between the margins of the fabricplies of the tire and the under lying tired rum adjacent the tire bead,as

shown in Fig. 3. As each plow face is so Y moved, the fabric moves alongthe curved surface of the plow face toward a position which is radialwith relation to the tire drum, and adjacent the side of the tire bead.At the same time each of the members 30 moves upward axially of its stem26 under the action of the cam roller 32 as the latter moves alongthesloping portion of the cam surface 28 of collar 27 against the force ofthe compression spring 33. The upward movement of the plow face 37assists the plow in moving the fabric margins substantially to radialposition. The plow during its period of functioning, is so held by itsmounting in nontagential relation to the fabric margin. and thetire-building form as to effect an out ward wiping of the under surfaceof the fabric margin,that is to say, in a direction opposite to that ofthe movement of the tool,- during the'time the tool moves from the outeredge of the fabric margin inwardly to the toe of the head for turning upthe fabric margin.

If during rotation of a tire structure the forward edge of a plow membershould strike a buckled or raised portion in the fabric such as might becaused by the overlapping margins of successive piles of fabric, thespring 38 associated therewith permits yielding displacement of the plowmember at the raised portionso as to prevent injury to the fabric by theforward edge of the plow, the latter being again pressed into engagementwith the work under the force of the spring 38 after the said raisedportion on the fabric has moved past the plow.

Thereafter, the continued angular movement of each tool-supporting plate30 moves 3T3 the respective plow members in an arcuate path out ofcontact with the turned up margins of the fabric at each side of thetire structure and brings the small rollers 43 into pressing engagementwith these turned up margins whereby they are respectively forcedagainst the respective beads at the opposite margins of the work andadhered thereto.

Still further angular movement of the tool-carrying plates 30 aroundtheir stems 26 moves the small rollers 43 out of engagement with thework and brings the edge and under surface of each stitcher disc -15into engagement with the turned up fabric where, because of thenon-radial relation of its axis to the tire-building form, and becauseof the non-tangential relation between the stitcher and the tire head,so that the stitcher member has its axis approximately normal butslightly inclined with relation to the adjacent surface of the tirestructure, it operates with a wiping action so as to lay the fabricfirmly and smoothly in a uniform man ner against the outer face of thetire structure. The upward movement of each of the plates 30 axially ofits stem due to the action of the cam roller 32 upon the cam surface 28continues substantially until the stitcher members reach their operativeposition in contact with the respective side margins of the tirestructure. The stitcher disc operates first upon the fabric margins incontact with the bead in a direction from the toe of the bead toward theheel of the tire structure, and then upon the external side face of thebead in a direction away from the heel of the bead. As each stitcherdisc is moved in the direction of the tire drum 12 by means of thehandle 34 any tendency for the stitcher to dig into and injure thefabric is prevented by the yielding upward movement of the supportingplate 30 axially of the stem 26 when the pressure of the tire structureupon the stitcher member is suficient to overcome the resistance of thespring 33, whereby the stitcher will ride or roll upon the outer,cylindrical surface of the fabric and lay it firmly against the outerface of the tire.

The use of my apparatus permits me to effect the various objects of myinvention and to perform the successive operations of turning up andstitching down the margins of the fabric around the tire bead morequickly and more uniformly than heretofore, while accomplishing asubstantial saving in time and labor. It is obvious that the two sets oftools may be manipulated at the same time, or that one set of tools maybe manipulated alone for operating upon but one margin of a tirestructure without departing from the essence of my invention.

My invention may be modified within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Tire-building apparatus comprising a rotatably supportedtire-building form, a tool-support mounted for movement to a position atthe side of'the form and having a portion thereof positionable adjacenta margin of a tire structure mounted on the form, a tire-building toolassociated with the toolsupport, means for moving the tire-building toolradially of the form and yielding means for resisting the said radialmovement of the tool and normally urging the tool toward inoperativeposition. i

2. Tire-building apparatus comprising a rotatably supportedtire-building form, a tool-support mounted to be moved radially of theform to a position at the side thereof, the support having a portionthereof positioned adjacent a. margin of a tire structure mounted on theform, a tire-building tool pivotally associated with the tool-support,cam means associated with the tool whereby pivotal movement of the toolwill move the same radially into operative engagement with a marginalportion of a tire structure mounted on the rotating form, and yieldingmeans normally resisting the operative radial movement of the tool.

3. Tire-building apparatus comprising a associated with thetool-mounting member and adapted by progressive angular movement of thelatter on its pivot to be successively brought into operative engagementwith a margin of a tire structure mounted on the form.

4. Tire-building apparatus comprising a rotatable tire-building form, abracket associated therewith extending radially of the tire-buildingform and having a portion thereof adjacent a marginal edge of a tirestructure mounted on the form, a tool-supporting member journaled on thebracket, a plurality of tire-building tools positioned on thetool-supporting member and adapted by progressive angular movement ofthe latter with relation to said bracket to be successively brought intooperative engagement with a margin of a tire structure mounted on theform.

5. Tire-building apparatus comprising a rotatable tire-building form, atool-support associated therewith having a portion there of extendingradially of the form adjacent a marginal edge of a tire structuremounted on the form, a tool-mounting member pivotally mounted on thetool-support and also arranged for axial movement thereon radially ofthe form, a plurality of tire-building tools positioned on thetool-mounting member and adapted upon angular movement of the latter tobe successively brought into operative engagement With a margin of atire structure mounted on the form, and means on the toolsupportcooperating with the tool-mounting member whereby pivotal movement ofthe latter causes a concurrent movement thereof along the tool-supportradially of the form.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 5 and inj eluding yielding meansassociated with the tool-support for resisting the movement V of thetool-mounting member upon the bracket member radially of the form.

7. Tire-building apparatus comprising a rotatably-supportedtire-building form, a tire tool associated therewith for applying tirefabric to a tire structure being built upon the form, the tool beingmounted to be moved transversely of the form to lift therefrom thefabric margin of thetire structure, the tool by its mounting being soheld in non-tangential relation to the form as-to effect during themovement of the tool along a portion of its path a progressive Wiping ofthe fabric in a direction opposite to that of the said movement of thetool, and so as to turn up a marginal portion of the fabric upon thebead of the tire structure, and means for causing the 1 tool to bedeterminately moved in a direction radially of the form during its saidmovement.

90 8. Tire-building apparatus as defined in claim 7 in which the meansfor causing the said radial movement of the tool comprises a cam.

In Witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 6th day of January,1932.

NOAH L. WARNER.

